Good News Agency – Year II, n° 6
Weekly - Year II, number 6
– 23 March 2001
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day.
Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 1,700 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, and it is also available in its web site:
It is a free of
charge service of Associazione Culturale
dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered non-profit
educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association operates
for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of the Lucis
Trust, Radio For Peace International, The Club of Budapest and other
organizations promoting a culture of peace in the ‘global village’ perspective
based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via Antagora 10, 00124
Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
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International legislation
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Health
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Disarmament
and peace
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Science
and technology
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Development
cooperation
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Environment and wildlife
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Solidarity
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Culture
and education
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CAMPAIGN FOR THE
ETHICAL CODE OF THE MEDIA
(TOP)
FAO's committee on fisheries
establishes new sub committee on aquaculture: one of the fastest growing food
production sectors
Rome, 7 March -
FAO's intergovernmental Committee on Fisheries has decided to set up a new
Sub-Committee on Aquaculture to deal with important emerging issues connected
with this important food-producing activity, the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) said today.
The proposed
Sub-Committee "would serve as an intergovernmental mechanism for
information exchange, discussion and consensus-building on emerging issues in
aquaculture", FAO said. This would include guidance for governments and
international bodies on technical and policy matters.
An Expert Consultation set up
by the FAO to consider the issue reported that such a committee would be
justified on a number of grounds. These included:
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the growing contribution of aquaculture to global food security and
economic development;
-
the diversity of international trends affecting the sector, which
require greater international cooperation;
-
the increasing need to address aquaculture issues in a global forum.
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/OIS/PRESS_NE/PRESSENG/2001/pren0112.htm
International experts discuss
plan of action on forest fires
Rome, 9 March - Coordinated
action to address the issue of forest fires in different parts of the world is
the main topic being discussed at a three-day meeting of international experts
on forest fire management and control at the Rome headquarters of the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) this week.
The experts are examining the
outline of a possible international plan of action on forest fires, taking
account of environmental concerns, national policies, laws and institutions,
FAO said.
Forest fires make a major
impact on forest ecosystems and have complex environmental, social, and
economic dimensions. They can have both positive (if managed) and negative
effects that extend far beyond their areas of occurrence.
FAO, in collaboration with the
International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) will host this week's meeting
in response to requests from member countries. An expert from IUCN/WWF will
also attend the meeting
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/OIS/PRESS_NE/PRESSENG/2001/pren0113.htm
ILO
Director-General takes aim at "Glass Ceiling" Commits Organisation to gender equality in workplace
Geneva, 8 March - "We
cannot afford to lose out on women's talent," said
Mr. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO, insisted today in an
address to a panel of international dignitaries on the occasion of
International Women's Day. "Improving gender equality in the
workplace", he added "Is the right thing to do; it's the smart thing
to do."
The gathering
today at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization paid tribute
to the generations of women and men who struggled for gender equality, Mr.
Somavia said that "the ILO remains committed to their cause."
"Gender equality is a
goal and a catalyst to achieve our core vision: decent work for women and men
in conditions of freedom, equity and dignity," Mr. Somavia insisted.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2001/08.htm
UNEP and african leaders
launch preparatory process for 2002 World Summit on sustainable development
Nairobi/Dakar, 9 March -
Experts and officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
together with government leaders and members of civil society from the continent
of Africa will meet in Dakar, on 12 and 13 March 2001, to launch the
preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD),
scheduled to be held in Johannesburg in mid-2002. Senegal's President,
Abdoulaye Wade will officially open the meeting.
Representatives
from African nations will discuss environmental issues that still confront the
region several years after the historical United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. They will assess
the gains that have been made, since the implementation of Agenda 21, arrive at
a common position on the issues still facing the region and agree on ways of
tackling those issues as they prepare for the Johannesburg meeting.
Arriving at a consensus will
require cooperation and coordination from African nations to highlight the
issues that are a matter of concern for each region. Africa aims to prepare for
the 2002 meeting with the full realization that human and material resources
are available to make sustainable development a concrete reality.
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=193&ArticleID=2786
Geneva/Nairobi, 5 March -
Leading climate change experts and officials from some 100 governments meeting
in Accra, Ghana have finalized a major report assessing effective policies and
technologies for tackling greenhouse gas emissions and the threat of human-induced
climate change.
Today's report by Working
Group III of the WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
confirms that many cost-effective solutions to rising greenhouse gas emissions
are available today. In many cases, however, governments will need to address
various institutional, behavioral and other barriers before these solutions can
realize their potential.
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=193&ArticleID=2784
(TOP)
Six women win new global peace
prize sponsored by UNIFEM and International Alert
11 March - Six women from war-torn and conflict-ridden
nations yesterday were awarded the new Millennium Peace Prize for Women, a
global award specifically recognizing women's integral role in building peace,
protecting women's human rights, and sustaining community and regional
infrastructure during war.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
(TOP)
Bhutan network will aid local decision-making
11 March - Bhutan is creating a new information network with UNDP
support that will make a wide array of information readily available to local
officials and bring decision-making closer to the people. This network will
enable district officers in Bhutan to collect, share, retrieve and analyse data
and information, narrowing the information gap between Thimphu, Bhutan's
capital, and the country's districts. The initiative is important because many
communities are isolated due to Bhutan's rugged terrain and limited transport
and communication links.
The
Japanese Human Resources Development Fund is funding the project, which will be carried out by Bhutan's Planning
Commission, and UNDP Bhutan and CISP, a
US company, signed a cost-sharing agreement on 2 March for the initiative.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
10 March - In just a few
months, the 300 members of Sierra Leone's Ogoo Women Farmers Association have
turned under-utilised farmland into fields of greens vegetables, pumpkins and
tomatoes, the ICRC reported on Thursday. "We women got together to help
ourselves and to avoid the vices of prostitution and idleness," Mariama
Keita, the association's chairman, said.
The women - most of them
displaced or widowed by the war - were given seeds, tools and training by the
ICRC, the Sierra Leone Red Cross, and the Ministry of Agriculture. ICRC and the
SLRC supported nearly 12,000 women this way last year and plan to help another
60,000 this year.
10 March - The International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is scaling down its general food distribution
in Angola's central highlands city of Huambo, in preference for agricultural
programmes to boost food self-sufficiency, the agency told IRIN on Wednesday.
Anne Zeidan, ICRC deputy head of operations for central and southern Africa,
said that nutritional surveys had shown that conditions were improving in
Huambo and that general food assistance would end in April. Instead, seeds and
tools would be distributed to enable the local community to farm. "This
break in general food distribution was planned and is not an abrupt scale down,"
Zeidan noted. She added that ICRC could revert to food aid after the August
harvest if required.
(TOP)
10 March - The Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation announced on Friday 2 March that it would give 2.6 million Swiss
francs (US $1.6 million) to two UN agencies and an NGO to support their efforts
to help thousands of Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees in southwestern
Guinea.
The equivalent of about US
$605,000 goes to UNHCR to relocate the refugees to safer areas farther inland.
Around US $666,000 will go to the World Food Programme for the purchase,
transport and distribution of 1,370 mt of food. The Swiss chapter of Medecins
sans frontieres gets roughly US $303,000 for its work in the new refugee camps.
10 March - Christ End Timer
Movement (CETMI), a German NGO, appealed to humanitarian bodies on Sunday for
funding to provide vocational training and medical care in Germany to 25 Sierra
Leonean amputees aged 11-16 years. CETMI said it needed money for air tickets,
artificial limbs, instructors and local transport for the children, who will be
housed in a 40-room facility equipped with training aids. CETMI also needs
money to cover the operational costs of the three-year project, which might be
extended until the children become adults.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone's health
minister, Ibrahim Jalloh, has received US $130,000 from DHL West Africa for an
orthopaedic and prosthetic building project for amputees, the state-owned news
agency, SLENA, reported on Wednesday.
Over 5,000 people had their
limbs hacked off by the Revolutionary United Front during its 11-year war
against the state.
Yugoslavia:
Repair work completed on Muscular Dystrophy Institute in Novi Pazar
8
March- On 1 March the Norwegian Red Cross and the ICRC handed over to the local
health authorities the newly repaired Muscular Dystrophy Institute in Novi
Pazar, the only one of its kind in Yugoslavia. The damage to the Institute
caused by NATO bombings in April 1999 coupled with years of neglect had led to
deplorable working conditions. For the patients, confined to wheelchairs for as
long as they live, the repair work has made a world of difference.
A
significant number of the Institute's 180 patients are permanently hospitalized
and they are naturally the ones to benefit the most from the project. A
16-year-old-boy smiled broadly as the director explained that the work had not
only improved the treatment facilities and made rooms available for visits and
leisure activities but had literally prevented the walls from collapsing.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
8 March - The Ogoo Women
Farmers Association outside Freetown has every right to be proud of what it has
achieved: in just a few months its 300 members, many of them displaced women or
war widows, have transformed underused farmland into verdant fields bearing
rich crops of local and imported vegetables, such as okra, krin-krin, pumpkins
and tomatoes. This was made possible by the women's own hard work and by the
timely support of the ICRC and the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, which
together provided the seed, tools and training. The Ministry of Agriculture
also played a key role in the project.
The example of the Ogoo
association shows that assistance programmes for women affected by war must
build on their strengths and abilities, and allow them to take charge. Last
year, the ICRC and the National Society supported nearly 12,000 Sierra Leonean
women in this way; in 2001 they plan to assist a further 60,000 women in the
country who are hoping to plant the seeds of a better future.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
Afghanistan:
Emergency food distribution in the Dar-e-Suf valley
8 March - Between 28 February
and 4 March the ICRC distributed food rations to 14,000 people trapped by bad
weather in the conflict-affected Dar-e-Suf valley, south of Mazar-i-Sharif.
With the roads to the valley heavily mined and covered in snow, the ICRC
organized several convoys of donkeys to reach the region's 250 villages.
The emergency distribution took place following a survey conducted by the ICRC in mid-February. Delegates in charge of the survey described the situation in humanitarian terms as "dramatic". Reto Stocker, ICRC head of sub-delegation in Mazar-i-Sharif, said: "In most of the villages we visited, there was little or no food left. To make matters worse, there was no sign of winter wheat being grown".
Carrying up to 100 kg of
supplies each, some 800 donkeys travelled through the valley during the
four-day operation. The rations distributed to the families, intended to help
them survive until the summer, included rice, beans and oil.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
8 March - Since clashes
involving armed groups from Liberia and Sierra Leone broke out in the Republic
of Guinea in September 2000, more than 80,000 internally displaced Guineans
have received emergency assistance from the ICRC. The purpose of the aid, which
consists of food (cereals, peas, cooking oil and salt) and other supplies
(sleeping mats, blankets, soap and jerrycans), is to help these people regain a
measure of self-sufficiency.
Fleeing
the areas bordering Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the fighting is taking
place, the displaced, who have lost all their belongings, are seeking refuge
with relatives in various parts of the country. Since they are completely
dependent on the resources of those who take them in, they place a heavy burden
on the host families and the assistance is all the more appreciated.
In view of the constant movement of displaced people, a survey is being carried out with the help of Guinea Red Cross volunteers and the local authorities to determine which groups are the most vulnerable and provide them with additional assistance. Drugs and other medical supplies have been distributed to health centres in the border areas and to the country's main hospitals treating the war-wounded.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
(TOP)
Genetically modified corn
7 March - In the first federal bailout related to
genetically engineered food, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced
yesterday that it will buy as many as 400,000 bags of corn seed that contain
the genetically modified (GM) corn variety StarLink. Using up to $20
million in funds normally lent to farmers facing natural disasters, the
government will compensate seed companies for corn that was inadvertently
contaminated with StarLink, most likely through the drift of pollen from other
cornfields. StarLink has not been approved for human consumption, but the
corn has still made its way into numerous food products, prompting nationwide
recalls. Just this morning, Greenpeace said StarLink has been found in
frozen corn dogs made by Kellogg's. The U.S. EPA said yesterday that it
would no longer approve GM products for use as animal feed unless they were
also safe for human consumption.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37085-2001Mar7.html
http://www.latimes.com/wires/wpolitics/20010308/tCB00V8713.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/067/business/EPA_Altered_animal_feed_must_pass_human_standard-.shtml
10 March - GlaxoSmithKline, a
major pharmaceutical company, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced
on 2 March the signing of an agreement for the development of a new
anti-malaria treatment called LAPDAP.
LAPDAP combines two existing
anti-malarial compounds (chlorproguanil and dapsone), WHO said. The agreement
aims at developing the drug as an oral treatment for uncomplicated malaria,
primarily for use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical trials in the region have
shown that LAPDAP is effective in treating uncomplicated malaria resistant to
other standard therapies, WHO reported.
Study
ranks women's reproductive health worldwide
U.S.
ranks 15th among 25 low risk countries; Africa's women still most at risk
Washington,
D.C., 8 March -- Women in the United States face greater risks to their sexual
and reproductive health than women in Singapore and many European nations.
However, those risks are far less than those faced by women in Africa,
according to a new study ranking 133 countries released today by Population
Action International (PAI). Italy and Ethiopia are ranked lowest and highest
risk respectively by the PAI study.
As the nations of the world today mark International Women's Day, PAI, a leading population policy group, and CARE, one of the world's largest international relief and development organizations, are highlighting the importance of reproductive health care in women's lives and in the battle against global poverty. "There is a gaping chasm between rich and poor countries when it comes to the sexual and reproductive health of women," says Amy Coen, president of PAI. "Right now, in developing countries, nearly half of all women deliver their babies with no help from skilled health personnel, and there are 150 million women who say they want to prevent or delay their next pregnancy, yet do not have access to contraceptives."
PAI and CARE identify access to contraceptives, essential obstetric care, and HIV/AIDS prevention programs as three interventions key to saving the lives of women and men of reproductive age.
http://www.care.org/info_center/newsroom/2001/studyranks030801a.html
International petition campaign launched
Online signers support South Africa's struggle for
AIDS medicines; demand pharmaceutical companies drop court case
New York, March 12 — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced the launch of "Drop the Case!" - an international petition drive calling on the 39 pharmaceutical companies suing the South African government to abandon the court case that is stopping South Africans from receiving AIDS drugs.
In 1997, Nelson Mandela signed
a law aimed at improving access to medicine, but the pharmaceutical industry
immediately filed suit to block it. In the three years in which the companies
have tied up this legislation in the courts, more than 400,000 South Africans
have died of HIV/AIDS, nearly all without any access to affordable treatments…
There is mounting
international pressure on the 39 companies to drop the case, including
statements from many high-level politicians expressing their support for South
Africa.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/pr/2001/03-12-2001.shtml
Floods in Mozambique: preventing epidemics
Maputo, March 9 — Recent floods in Mozambique have polluted water sources, raising concerns about the threat of epidemics such as cholera, malaria, and measles. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is focusing on epidemic prevention in provinces severely affected by the floods. The organization is setting up a cholera processing center, organizing the training of health professionals, particularly in the districts of Mutarara and Quelimane, and supporting temporary health stations of the Ministry of Health in Ankuaze, Nhacolo and Caia.
MSF is also providing medical
care to populations displaced by the floods in four centers housing more than
1,200 families in Mutarara district. In Chupanga (Sofala province), MSF is
providing medical equipment and drinkable water and assisting with evacuation
by boat and helicopter.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/pr/2001/03-09-2001.shtml
(TOP)
London, March 7
- UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced a further £100 million
(US$147 million) to support renewable energy technology in what green groups
described as his strongest environmental speech yet.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-07-11.html
Oil-rich
Dubai considers hydrogen
Rhinecliff, NY, March 7 -
Oil-producing Dubai, a key commercial and technological crossroad in the
Persian Gulf region, is taking its first cautious steps towards the eventual
production of renewable hydrogen in close cooperation with car maker BMW. If
the strategy takes hold and succeeds, it could mark a revolutionary shift in
the world's system of energy distribution. It could signal the beginning of a
shift away from carbon-based fuels to solar-derived renewable energy among the
world's principal producers of petroleum.
http://ens-news.com/e-wire/Mar01/07Mar0107.html
New ways of fighting cancers
and viral infections could result from recent advances in tissue engineering
that created an “artificial thymus.” The engineered gland efficiently generates
large quantities of a wide range of human T cells, a key element in the body’s
immune system. The research by Cytomatrix (Woburn, Mass.) and Massachusetts
General Hospital lays the foundation for possible new T cell therapies for
intractable diseases and for repairing damaged immune systems. The work was
supported in part by NIST’s Advanced
Technology Program.
T cells are formed in the
thymus and are responsible for highly specific immune responses, some directly
attacking abnormal cells—such as cancers, cells invaded by a virus, or in
transplanted tissue—and others controlling different aspects of the immune
response, such as the production of antibodies. There are around a trillion
possible T cell variations, and the average person may have millions of
different T cells.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/taglance/current.htm#3d
Radiology tools enhance care
Expert radiologists in West
Virginia can be in several places at the same time—and provide faster, more
convenient services to rural patients—as a result of an innovative suite of
medical information technologies developed under NIST’s Advanced Technology Program.
The project led to a
high-speed network—believed to be the first teleradiology network—used by the
Charleston Area Medical Center to offer expert interpretations by a radiologist
to at least seven hospitals statewide. Approximately 150 patients are served
daily by the system, which handles all types of multimedia data and supports
access to existing systems. The network allows health-care providers to get
interpretations in 15 minutes, compared to as much as 10 hours previously.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were before,” says Bob Boyles, CAMC
corporate director for materials services. “The earlier you get a diagnosis, the
better success you have with treatment.” CAMC also uses the network to store
and make magnetic resonance, computed tomography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine,
and X-ray images accessible to staff in intensive care, emergency, and
diagnostic imaging.
The three-year ATP project,
led by the Advanced Technology Institute of Charleston, S.C., partnered
industrial firms, clinical facilities, universities, and national laboratories.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/taglance/current.htm#3d
Improving air quality
NIST has joined an interagency
effort led by the Environmental Protection Agency—the National Particulate
Matter Research Program—aimed at improving the nation’s air quality and public
health. Particulate matter is a mix of coarse and fine particles in the air
produced by natural processes as well as human activities. About 10 to 100
times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, fine particulate matter can
consist of dust, ashes, soot, and sulfate aerosols. NIST will develop and
provide the fundamental chemical measurements and standard reference materials
that will serve as the basis for improved monitoring of air quality by
government and industry.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/taglance/current.htm#3d
(TOP)
IAEA
Director General visits purification facility at polish thermal power station
6 March 2001 - On the
occasion of his first official stay in Poland, the Director General of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, today visited an
industrial scale Electron Beam Demonstration Facility constructed with IAEA
assistance at the Pomorzany Electric Power Station near Szczecin. The facility
uses an electron beam device to purify flue gases from the burning of coal
emitted through the plant’s chimney stack, thereby helping to protect the
environment. By the addition of ammonia, the process also permits the production
of fertilizer as a by-product.
In countries such as Poland where power generation is based largely on
the burning of coal, to protect the atmosphere against serious consequences of
pollutants, special facilities for limitation of the emissions have been
installed.
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Press/P_release/2001/prn0104.shtml
Mexico City, Mexico, March 7
(ENS) - The new Mexican government is going all out to protect the country's
dwindling forest and water reserves - even threatening to use the armed forces
in the protection of these resources. To create awareness of the importance of
forests and water, Mexican President Vicente Fox today launched the National
Crusade for Forests and Water in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-07-02.html
9 March- The U.S. EPA has a
new target for its investigations -- universities and colleges that aren't
complying with environmental laws. "Our inspectors have not been on
one campus where they have not found serious problems," says Rene Henry in
the EPA's Philadelphia office. For example, Boston University was fined
$750,000 in 1997 after a tank leaked 1,000 gallons of oil into the Charles
River. Last December, the University of Hawaii was hit with the largest
penalty ever issued by the EPA to a university: $1.7 million for hazardous
waste violations. EPA spokesperson Mark Merchant said the agency started
focusing on schools because pollution from industrial sources has been greatly
reduced.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-other/2001/mar/07/030808485.html
HSUS
launches animal-friendly donor-advised fund
Humane
Society of the U.S. offers new charitable vehicle for donations to charities
helping people and animals
Washington, March 1 - The
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced today that it has launched
The HSUS Donor-Advised Fund. The animal-friendly donor-advised fund “which
works to assure that all charitable giving donated through the fund goes to
charities or non-profit organizations that do not harm our fellow species” is
open to HSUS members or anyone who shares The HSUS’s goal of ending animal
cruelty, neglect and exploitation.
Currently being pioneered in
the nation’s charities and investment firms, donor-advised funds operate
somewhat like private foundations but require significantly lower initial
donations. Not accessible merely to wealthy individuals, they are designed for
people searching for significant tax deductions in the current year, but who
also want flexibility to use the funds for distributions over a period of many
years…
UNEP: precautionary action
regarding Depleted Uranium in Kosovo
Geneva/Nairobi, March 13 - Today has been realised the final
report of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) on the environmental
impact of depleted uranium (DU) during the 1999 Kossovo conflict. The UNEP
field mission, consisting of 14 scientists from several countries, visited some
sites that were identified as being targeted by ordnance containing DU, and
found that amount of transuranic isotopes (uranium isotope U-238/U-236 and plutonium
isotope Pu-239/240) is very low and does not have any significant impact on
their overall radioactivity.
"There are
still considerable scientific uncertainties, especially related to the safety
of groundwater," said Pekka Haavisto, Chairman of UNEP's Depleted Uranium
Assessment Team. "Additional work has to be done to reduce these
uncertainties and to monitor the quality of water." IAEA (International
Atomic Energy Agency), UNEP, and WHO (World Health Organisation) will consider
a future cooperation to prepare future missions to areas where DU has been used
during military conflicts.
The report is available at http://www.unep.ch/balkans/
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=193&ArticleID=2789
Athens, Georgia, USA, March 19 - Anthropology student John Stepp at UGA (University of Georgia) has found that weeds in easy to reach disturbed areas may be even more important that medicinal plants of primary tropical rainforests. Working with the Highland Maya in Chiapas, Mexico, Stepp found that almost all the medically important plants being used from the people, about 35 percent, grow where other plants can not, as weeds in disturbed areas, not far from their houses or villages. An analysis of medicinal plants used by Native North Americans reveals similar numbers and are weeds. “Plants in disturbed areas may have more chemicals in them for defense, which could make them useful as medicines”, said Stepp. (Journal of Ethnopharmacology)
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-19-09.html
Nature
mops up
Scientists funded by ONR (Office of Naval Research ) have found evidence of a natural process called intrinsic bioremediation, in which native organisms, in contaminated marine sediment can degrade or become a sink for hydrocarbons and other organic pollutants. The natural bacteria adapted by years of exposure to the problem, may be are doing a clean up on their own, functioning as a filter within the ecosystem “We'd spend millions of taxpayer dollars to dredge the sediments”, said Mike Montgomery of the Naval Research Laboratory, “ the very elements that are solving the problem for us." The strategy now is to learn how to identify sediments that may be undergoing intrinsic bioremediation, to aid site cleanup programs.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-07-09.html
Nairobi/Geneva/Arendal/Vienna/Szentendre,
13 March - The goal of giving people and communities across the globe up-to-the
minute access to high quality environmental information has moved a step closer
thanks to a special high tech Task Force, set up to deliver environmental
information. The first meeting, held in Arendal, Norway, based on an initiative
led by Austria with support from the Norwegian government, envolved more than 30 governments within the
pan-European region, and NGOs from USA, UK and Israel, focusing on helping
public authorities to develop the necessary Information Technology, for public
participation in environmental decisions, and focusing on developing common
approaches, standards and technologies for disseminating such information
through the Internet, television and radio. The event: Norwegian Ministry of
Environment and UNEP/GRID-Arendal www.grida.no
The Task Force agreed to continue its work in a "virtual" environment via an electronic discussion forum hosted by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) at www.rec.org/e-aarhus
About the Convention, at: www.unece.org/env/pp/
The Task Force is to work with
NGOs, the mass media and other relevant users to ensure the quality of the
environmental information delivered.
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=193&ArticleID=2790
(TOP)
Latin American and Caribbean
nations adopt Cochabamba declaration on education
Paris, March 8 - The meeting of the Regional
Intergovernmental Committee of the Major Project for Education (PROMEDLAC VII),
organized by UNESCO in Bolivia, ended yesterday evening with the adoption of the
Cochabamba Declaration and a series of recommendations concerning educational
policies.
The Conference, a landmark for
the future of education in Latin America and the Caribbean, brought together
delegations from most countries in the region, including 16 education ministers
and 15 deputy ministers. It was opened on March 5 by the President of Bolivia,
Hugo Banzer.
The Conference took stock of
education throughout the region and formulated concrete proposals for
activities to be carried out within the framework of the follow-up to the World
Education Forum (Dakar, April 2000).
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-35e.shtml
Put
girls in school to end global hunger and poverty, says WFP head
Rome, March
7 - The head of the United Nations World Food Programme has called on the
international community to help send girls in developing countries to school,
citing girls’ education as one of the most effective weapons there is for
ending global hunger and poverty.
Catherine
Bertini, Executive Director of WFP, who issued the challenge in advance on
International Women’s Day tomorrow, said that closing the massive gap between
boys’ and girls’ school enrolment should be the top priority for the
international community in poor and underdeveloped countries. Mrs. Bertini, who has made gender equality one of the policy cornerstones of
WFP, noted that of the estimated 875 million illiterate adults in the world
today, two-thirds are women. And yet, girls who go to school marry later than
girls who don’t, and they have fewer and healthier children, Bertini said,
citing studies showing that mothers who complete primary education will have an
average of two children fewer than those women with no schooling.
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/0307E.htm
The campaign for the Ethical
Code of the Media receives a wide and
warm welcome
“Nothing is more powerful
than an idea whose time has come”: the need to establish a new balance in the
world of media is shared by many farsighted people and groups.
The Nobel Peace Laureates
who met in Rome on 11-12 November 2000 discussed at length this issue and
expressed their belief that “the modern system of mass media is suffering from
an unprecedented crisis that prevents a correct view of what is currently
happening in the world”. And their conclusion stressed that “the public opinion
has been called upon to make the transformation from passive observer to active
participant, keeper of the truth and responsibility of mass media”.
The Club of Budapest
focussed on the role and responsibilities of the media, and studies in this
direction have been and are being developed by several universities and research
groups.
The launch of our campaign
for the Ethical Code of the Media is receiving a wide and warm welcome and is
soliciting deep interest from service organizations and private people around
the world. Among the many endorsements we received in these first four weeks,
there are: Prof. Ervin Laszlo, scientist and futurologist, President of The
Club of Budapest; Prof. Ada Aharoni, academic researcher and President of
IFLAC: PAVE PEACE-The International Forum for the Culture of Peace (Israel);
Sociocratic Centre of Australia; Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (Italy);
Syntony Quest (USA); Global Vision Network (UK); The REED
Program-Environmentally Clean Communities (USA); Global Resource Bank (USA);
World Business Academy (Brazil); Institute of Noetic Sciences (Brazil); The
William Harris House Initiative of Synthesis and Convergence (Brazil);
Associazione Sipicciano Vive (Italy); Human Species (France); Revelation
Journal (UK); Agenzia di stampa umanista Buone Nuove (Italy); Unione Comunità
Associazioni Immigrati (Italy); The Phoenix News Network (Canada); WORLD
GOODWILL (International H.Q.,UK); Intuition in Service (New Zealand);
Associazione ICPC Italia; Toward the Third Millennium (Russia), and many people
who endorsed the Code on a personal basis.
This on-going campaign will
last several months because the Ethical Code of the Media will be presented to
the world publishers when a great number of people and organizations have
endorsed it. We will include progress reports in the next issues of Good News
Agency. As all of us know, each endorsement counts and we need yours, too.
Just fill in your name at the end of the following page and send it back to us.
Together, we can make it.
* * * * * * *
Next issue: 6 April 2001
* * * * * * *
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The building of
a just and peaceful world is man’s duty, just as its destruction could be
determined by man.
In a democratic
environment which tends to assign to the citizen-elector a growing
responsibility for the directions of social development, the formation of a
public opinion which is widely aware of the main events that happen in the
world is the key for directing the efforts of humanity towards a global village
based on unity in diversity and on sharing, fundamental qualities for the
development of a responsible and sustainable social life.
In this
perspective, the importance of the media is fundamental and the consequent
social responsibility of editors cannot be based any longer on the only element
which has so far been unquestioned: the search for company profits through the
maximum possible diffusion of the media. This aim has so far prevailed over
every other consideration, thus taking from the media the responsibility for
the formation of an aware and balanced public opinion.
In pursuing the
maximum possible company profits, the media have placed the accent on the
dissemination of sensational and dramatic news, which appeal to the
characteristics of a public seen as a tangled mass of emotions and mortify the
interest of another part of the public, which has a quite different vision of
life and of the information which describes it. This situation in the world of
information is the most obvious evidence of a human activity which, with some
enlightened exceptions, sacrifices
quality and balance on the altar of quantity and immediate profit,
ignoring those responsibilities of an ethical kind which that very activity of
itself implicitly confers.
Today, however,
the media cannot continue any longer to overlook the positive and constructive
occurrences among that part of humanity - estimated at between 10 and 15 percent of the citizen-elector-contributors
in the developed countries - which has by now adopted a social behaviour in
harmony with the fundamental values of a fair and sustainable social
development. To give voice also to the events which indicate in the world the
response of humanity to the greatest problems of our time is a responsibility
of the media which can no longer be put off, in order to allow public opinion
to be formed on the basis of a range of information corresponding to all
aspects of the reality in which we live.
Therefore, as is
the custom for many other categories of great importance in social life, the
public opinion consisting of that 10-15 percent of the population orientated
towards the construction of a just and sustainable global village asks the
media to adopt and respect the deontological code here laid down.
Ethical Code of
the Media
1. It is
the moral responsibility of the media to pursue the aim of disseminating
information on every aspect of the reality in which we live.
2. The
media must disseminate information with respect and consideration for all the
public.
3. The
information should be organized by distributing the “weight” of the different
sectors so as to respect the right to knowledge of important social groups.
4. The
information must reflect reality with a variety of news which mirrors the
components of reality itself to the extent to which they define it.
5. The
information must seek, as far as possible, the causes of the events in the
determining behaviour of man.
6. The
media have the privilege and the task of also setting the events reported in
the context of their correspondence to the principles of responsibility and the
search for the common good.
7. It is
the privilege, task and responsibility of the media to do their best to
emphasize the connections between the most significant world events.
The Ethical Code
of the Media will be presented to the publishers of the world’s press, radio
and television when it has been signed by a large number of signatories, such
as:
- organizations of the United Nations;
- non-governmental organizations;
- voluntary service associations;
- journalists for whom the mandate of the
editor represents a restraint;
- enlightened editors who have already showed
agreement with the values of the Code;
- people who recognize the necessity and
validity of the Code.
To express your
agreement with this initiative, include your data here below and send this page
to Good News Agency, s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
I support the Ethical Code of the Media:
Name and surname
Organization
(name and address)
Date
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